Indira was wrongly advised on Bluestar: KPS GILL

NEW DELHI (TIP): More than 29 years after the controversial Operation Bluestar in June of 1984, Punjab‘s former Director General of Police Kanwar Pal Singh Gill has claimed that then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi would not have allowed the operation, but was wrongly advised to do so as it was presented as the only option by her advisors. The operation – much criticized and scrutinized over nearly three decades — was to storm the Amritsar’s Golden Temple with tanks of the Indian Army to flush out Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his band of armed supporters. The official biography of the supercop titled ‘KPS Gill The Paramount Cop’ released in New Delhi on October 31, also the death anniversary of Indira Gandhi, talks candidly of the role played by the 1957-batch Assam cadre IPS officer in tackling militancy in Punjab. Authored by Rahul Chandan, the 244-page book presents Gill’s opinion of Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and PV Narsimha Rao and has passing references to VP Singh and Chandrashekhar, all Prime Ministers during the dark days of militancy in Punjab. On Operation Bluestar, the author quotes Gill as having said: “(It) was conducted in a hasty manner and without thinking what impact it would have on the hearts and minds of Sikhs.” The book says Gill told his fellow officers: “Don’t understand how Mrs Gandhi can order such an operation.”

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